Search For Wisconsin Brothers Finds Human Remains

The search for the missing Diemel brothers is focused on a farm near Braymer, Missouri.
( AP )

The 10-day search for two Wisconsin brothers has uncovered human remains, the Clinton County, Missouri, sheriff confirmed Wednesday at a news conference.

The remains were located Tuesday at a Braymer, Missouri, farm where Wisconsin ranchers Nick and Justin Diemel were last known to be, Sheriff Larry Fish said. Officials are waiting for DNA testing to confirm the identities of the remains. Fish would not comment on the condition of the remains.

The search for the Diemel brothers has included various sites in Caldwell and Clinton counties in Missouri.

"Investigators are still working with Frontier Forensics doctors to determine what took place," Fish said. "Investigators will continue to follow up on leads, and if you have information, we urge you to call."

Fish said the only suspect remains Garland "Joey" Nelson, who is currently jailed on one charge that he tampered with the brothers' rental truck. Nelson was arrested July 26 and denied bond in a hearing Monday. He is scheduled for another bond hearing Thursday, Aug. 1.

Tomme Feil, who owns the property and is Nelson's mother, told the Kansas City Star she and her family returned home from Branson on July 21 to find her son speaking to police officers.

Feil said she has no idea why her son would have moved the rental truck but she also cannot see him being involved in the Diemel brothers’ deaths.

“He’s hardworking. He always seems to care about family,” Feil said.

She said she wouldn’t know if he got mixed up in something he shouldn’t have. She is waiting and hoping, she said, for “it all to go away.”

On Tuesday in Shawano County (Wis.) Probate Court, Lisa Diemel, the wife of Nicholas Diemel, asked a judge to declare both Nicholas and Justin legally dead so she can manage the brothers’ livestock business.

Court records show Lisa Diemel is listed as a “special administrator.” The date of death is listed as July 21, the day the brothers missed their return flight to Wisconsin and the day police said the brothers were at the farm in Braymer, Missouri.

The Diemel brothers were in Missouri checking on cattle, and were scheduled to return to their home in Wisconsin on Sunday, July 21, 2019. Their family became concerned when they missed that flight.

The brothers had rented a Ford F-250 truck from Budget Rent A Car, and authorities used GPS information from that vehicle to determine it was driven from a Quality Inn off I-35 in Cameron, MO, to a farm near Braymer the morning of the 21st.

A little more than two hours after the brothers arrived at the farm, the truck was driven away from the farm and spotted by several security cameras approximately a half-hour later in Polo with no one in the passenger seat.

The truck was parked in a commuter lot near Interstate 35 and Missouri PP in Holt, Missouri, around 12:45 p.m. and left running with the keys in the ignition and lights on.

Nelson admitted to authorities that he drove the vehicle from the farm to the commuter lot. Nelson was arrested and charged with one count of tampering with an automobile, because Nicholas Diemel was the only authorized driver, according to the rental agreement signed July 20.